2012 Jim Barry "Lodge Hill" Shiraz Clare Valley South Australia

SKU #116789095 points
James Halliday

Vivid purple-crimson; a totally delicious wine with a spring in its step more frequently encountered in cool climate Shiraz; its fruit flavours span blood plum, red cherry and mulberry, these complexed by spice and garden herbs, the tannins fine and supple. Great value.
(9/2013)

91 points
Wine & Spirits

**Best Buy and one of the Year's Best Australian Shiraz** This grows in a warm spot in a high-elevation vineyard otherwise planted to Riesling. It’s clean, fragrant and relatively light in weight; the purple plum fruit has a tart acidity, creating a peppery crush of flavor.
(2/2014)

90 points
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2012 The Lodge Hill Shiraz is scented of crushed mulberries, black cherries and plums, with nuances of cloves and lavender. Medium to full-bodied with plenty of juicy black fruit flavors supported by a medium level of rounded tannins and balancing acid, it finishes with good length. Drink it now to 2018+.
(2/2014)

Bright purple. Spice-accented black and blue fruits on the nose, with suggestions of cracked pepper and licorice adding complexity. Fleshy and appealingly sweet, offering ripe blueberry and cassis flavors that are lifted and sharpened by gentle acidity. Finishes on a smoky note, with good energy and dusty tannins adding grip. Give this youthful shiraz a little air if you plan on drinking it right now.
(7/2014)

K&L Notes

The 2012 vintage was nearly perfect and probably the best in a decade for Clare Valley. The 2012 Lodge Hill Shiraz has a deep black color with a magenta hue. Aromatically it offers vibrant notes of blueberry and dark cherry. A juicy, fleshy palate is supported by ripe cherry and blackberry fruit. This is delicately built with fine, lingering tannins - wrapped up in integrated, well-seasoned oak. The Lodge Hill Shiraz vineyard, on the Clare Valley’s eastern ranges, has soils of rich loam over almost vertical sheets of rock. The cracks between the rock have filled with soil, providing passage for the vine roots and free drainage - the ideal environment for low-yielding Shiraz vines.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Shiraz/Syrah

- One of France's noblest black grape varieties, Syrah is known for its intense and distinctive perfume reminiscent of briar fruit, tar, spice and black pepper and its firm structure. One of few black grape varietals frequently vinified on its own, the best examples of Syrah come from the Northern Rhône, particularly Hermitage, but also Côte-Rôtie, Cornas, Crozes-Hermitage and St-Joseph. These wines are very astringent in their youth, though some Crozes-Hermitage and St-Joseph can be enjoyed young, relatively speaking. Given the requisite patience, though, these wines can reveal amazing complexity and secondary fruit characteristics like plum and blackcurrant as well as subtle hints of smoke and flowers. In the Southern Rhône, Syrah is used to add structure and complexity to wines dominated by Grenache and complemented by Mourvèdre, like the more immediately drinkable Côte du Rhônes, as well as the long-lived wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In recent years, plantings of Syrah have spread throughout the Languedoc-Roussillon where it is produced on its own or blended with other varietals. Outside of France, the most important Syrah growing country is easily Australia, where it is called Shiraz. Quality levels here depend greatly on yields and geography, and the wines range from bold, fruity and easy-drinking to intense and ageable, like the famed Penfolds Grange. Often bottled on its own, in Australia Syrah is also can be blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre, as in the Southern Rhône, and is increasingly combined with Cabernet Sauvignon. Syrah has also been steadily increasing in popularity in California, thanks to a group of advocates called the Rhône Rangers. Its most successful iterations come from the Central and Sonoma Coasts, where winemakers are pushing boundaries and creating some incredible wines. In recent years Syrah has also found a number of proponents in Washington State, which is definitely a region to watch for this variety.

Country:

Australia

- While it is true that the greatest strides in Australian winemaking have come in the last 30 years or so, commercial viticulture began as early as the 1820s and has developed uninterrupted ever since. The majority of the great wine regions are in the southeastern area of the continent, including Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra in South Australia; Yarra Yarra Valley and Pyrenees in Victoria; and the Upper and Lower Hunter Valleys in New South Wales. Many of the wines from Southeastern Australia are based on Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon and various blends including Grenache and Mourvedre. In Western Australia, along the Margaret River, great strides are being made with Pinot Noir as well as Bordeaux-styled reds. There are also many world-class releases of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from the land Down Under, where Riesling also enjoys international acclaim. While many equate Aussie wines with “value,” there are more than a few extremely rare and pricey options, which never fail to earn the highest ratings from wine publications and critics throughout the world. View a list of bestselling items from Australia.